Airbnb shows that home advantage makes all the difference
Film-style photographs, check. The Beatles soundtrack, check.
Analogue-inspired simplicity at its finest from Airbnb in what is one of the most challenging ad formats – a TV spot as a major sporting sponsor.
I’m a huge fan of the Winter Olympics.
A ski season almost 15 years ago, followed by a stint working on ski resorts and tour operators (plus the famous La Folie Douce) in my first PR job, cemented a love of all things mountains and their unvarnished reality.
Winter sports have a real rawness to them, partly through the nature of mountain regions, but also the unpredictability and inherent risks surrounding them. There’s no big money for its stars (well, apart from Eileen Gu, but her ski income was just 0.44% of her total earnings in the past year). As with many Summer Olympic sports, of course, the journey to a medal lacks the glitz and glamour we associate with elite-level sports like football.
And that’s why Airbnb’s ad to support its sponsorship of the Games works so well, capturing the unfiltered moments its listings play host to.
Airbnb also plays so well into the evolution of what people want from the platform.
It's a home-from-home, a space with character that enables experiences, and a bit of a rejection of the multi-property landlords that have often dominated Airbnb, taking a lot of the soul away from the experience.
But also, that soundtrack grabs you instantly and elevates the simplicity and rawness of what’s on screen, reminding you that Airbnb is a big player, big enough to carry off a Beatles track.
Beyond the TV ad that’s been peppered throughout TNT’s coverage of the Games in the UK, the brand also released a 15-minute documentary charting the journey for athletes and its support of those journeys through The Airbnb Athlete Travel Grant. Again, this isn’t full of soulless IKEA-laden LED-lit generic apartments; it’s raw and imperfect, but homely and supportive. The perfect tone and style for the Official Sponsor of Feeling at Home.
If you enjoyed this article, you can subscribe for free to our weekly email alert and receive a regular curation of the best creative campaigns by creatives themselves.
Published on: